


take me home

by radioactiveRat



Category: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Bisexual Male Character, Cliff has a crush, Coming Out, Gay Male Character, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, M/M, One Shot, Period Typical Attitudes, Pining, Rick just needs a hug, two guys sitting in a car talking about gay things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26884978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactiveRat/pseuds/radioactiveRat
Summary: Cliff picks Rick up from a failed date. Few things come to light during their ride home.
Relationships: Cliff Booth/Rick Dalton
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	take me home

**Author's Note:**

> you know that feeling when you're trying to come out to your friends that you know will be cool with it but it's still awkward as fuck and you'd rather not do it? Yeah, that's them. Enjoy.

A call this late at night is never a good sign, and a call from a very upset Rick Dalton begging to be taken home from the other side of town surely meant bad news. Cliff’s not a guy who cares about a lot of things, he’s mostly laid back and deals with his own problems in his own time, unless it comes to Rick. If Rick’s involved then Cliff is willing to drop everything and make sure his friend is alright, which he is doing now. 

It’s a Friday night, and while most of LA is out partying Cliff was ready to spend the evening by himself and finally rest after a long week of shooting, and from what he knew Rick was going to do the same, but apparently the actor was out somewhere, a bar or at a party probably.

Cliff’s already in the car, driving fast and thinking about what kind of place Rick would go to without even telling him. Rick always offered to take Cliff whenever he was going, sometimes the stuntman knew better and declined going to certain parties while Rick was too oblivious to notice that he simply wouldn’t be welcome. Cliff thinks he probably got an invitation from someone on set this week, an invitation that specifically said _don’t bring your creepy buddy_ and that’s why Rick didn’t even ask. 

A thought runs through Cliff’s mind, what if Rick’s on a date? He doesn’t like to admit it, but thinking about Rick romancing it out with someone that’s not him on a Friday night makes his gut twist. Yeah, he’s jealous, big deal. He also would be a little mad if Rick didn’t tell him there was a girl that caught his attention, isn’t that what friends do? Talk about women and shit? It would be a little out of character for him not to tell anything, knowing Rick, he would probably have a good old nervous breakdown right before any date, and that’s when Cliff always comes in. 

If it was a date, then it went to shit, because Rick was really upset when he called. Cliff doesn’t like to think what might have happened to make Rick call him crying from god knows where after doing god knows what for the whole evening. His anxiety perks up when he thinks of all the bad scenarios that can happen in a wild party, and he pushes on the gas pedal harder so he doesn’t waste any more time. 

Cliff spots his friend about a minute later, he’s sitting on the sidewalk right next to the phone booth from which he called. Rick looks calm, he’s not crying, he seems tired more than anything else. Cliff pulls over and parks the car right next to him, and when Rick notices he gives Cliff a smile that quickly turns back into a grimace. 

‘Hey.’ Cliff says and gestures for him to get in. 

Rick quickly stands up, he wipes his hands on his pants and fixes his hair. Cliff knows him well enough to know these gestures mean he’s nervous. 

‘Everything alright partner?’ Cliff asks when Rick is finally in the car. 

‘Just take me home Cliff.’ Rick orders quickly, with very little emotion, and Cliff does his best not to worry, but fails. 

He waits a moment before turning the car back on, hoping Rick would say something more. He looks at the actor, assessing if he’s okay, and that’s when he notices it. Rick’s got a bruise on his right cheek, it’s small, and barely visible, but when Cliff sees it the worry he felt before quickly turns into anger. 

‘Who did that?’ he points his finger at the bruise while his other hand is gripping the steering wheel way too tightly. His tone is firm, and Rick’s eyes widen when he hears the question. 

‘I-uh—’ he stammers, he seems like he has just remembered the bruise was there. He covers it with his hand, like it’s something Cliff shouldn’t have seen. ‘I’m f-fine... I punched back if that makes you happy.’ 

Cliff lets go of the wheel and with both hands moves Rick’s face to examine if there’s something more. The actor whines and tries to slap Cliff’s hands away but he’s not going to let go until he’s sure Rick’s actually alright. He reminds himself of his mom, back in the day when she would see him after school all beaten up. He wonders how that woman didn’t have a heart attack, seeing someone you care for hurt isn’t fun. 

‘I t-t-told you I’m fine!’ Rick raises his voice and Cliff finally lets go. He’s telling the truth as far as Cliff can tell. 

‘What—’ Cliff starts, he takes a deep breath to calm himself before he jumps out of the car looking for whoever did that to Rick. ‘What happened?’ he finishes with gritted teeth. 

‘N-nothing—nothing happened. I s-swear I’m okay. Don’t worry about m-me buddy.’ 

Easier said than done, Cliff thinks, but he knows better to leave it, Rick doesn’t want to tell him for whatever reason, and if he pushes him Rick will just get upset. It hurts Cliff a little that his friend doesn’t trust him enough to say what happened, but he figures he might just be embarrassed and maybe it really is nothing to worry for. 

He looks out at the street one last time, looking for any commotion, or someone suspicious that might have been the culprit, but he sees no one. The street itself feels a little familiar to Cliff, but he doesn’t care to remember why. 

‘You’re gonna need some ice.’ Cliff says matter-of-factly while turning the keys in the station. 

‘Huh?’ Rick looks at him confused. ‘Oh, y-yeah... I’ve g-got a lot at home.’ He says after a moment. 

‘We’ve got a long way home Rick. I’m gonna stop somewhere so you can ice it now.’ Cliff says and Rick looks like he’s about to object, but Cliff knows better not to let him. ‘Listen, you either take care of it now or it’s going to swell, and I’m not gonna be stuck with you complaining about how your face looks for the next three days.’ 

‘T-three days?’ Rick confirms, a little fear in his voice. 

‘If it’s worse than you say it can take longer. Trust me, I know a lot about bruises.’ 

Rick sighs and crosses his arms, which is as much of an agreement as Cliff will get, so he gets back on the road and starts driving. He knows the actor has an audition on Monday, and a bruised face will give him more reasons to be nervous about it. Rick’s like that, if something affects his work then it’s top priority and comes even before his own wellbeing. 

It’s not that easy to find a convenience store open at this hour, so Cliff’s already preparing that it may take them a while, and that would mean he has to stir up a conversation before the silent car ride gets too awkward. He takes a quick look at Rick who is now leaning in his seat and looking out the window. He looks troubled, deep in thoughts that aren’t very positive, Cliff can tell that by the way he’s fiddling with the buttons of his jacket and furrowing his eyebrows. 

‘So, were you anywhere interesting tonight?’ Cliff asks, breaking the silence and hoping he can get at least a few hints as to how today went for Rick. 

‘A bar.’ The actor responds quickly, Cliff wasn’t very surprised by that answer. 

‘Shit, you know I’d have gone with you if you asked, are you already getting tired of me?’ Cliff teases, he sees in the corner of his eye that he got a quick smile from his friend. Now that means his mood is improving. Cliff mentally praises himself for his good work. 

‘Y-you said you wanted to rest.’ Rick says, the nervousness already gone from his voice. ‘You w-wouldn’t wanna go anyway, n-not your crowd.’ 

‘So you weren’t alone?’ Cliff asks before thinking, he doesn’t wanna come off as angry or worse – jealous, but his curiosity has gotten the better of him. Fortunately Rick doesn’t think anything of it and continues talking. 

‘No, n-not really.’ He says. 

‘Was it a date?’ Cliff puts on a smile so it comes off as more teasing and not an interrogation. 

Rick chuckles, and Cliff lets out a sigh of relief, happy he didn’t make him shut down. 

‘Y-yeah, you can call it that.’ 

That relief Cliff felt a second ago was now gone, just like Rick’s smile. The change in Rick’s emotion makes the stuntman sure the date went to shit, and he feels like an absolute asshole for being somewhat happy about it. Jealousy is a damn ugly emotion, especially when it makes you feel good about someone you love being hurt. 

Shit, _love..._ Cliff hasn’t called it that yet. Well, fuck it, if this ain’t love then he doesn’t know what is. 

‘I hope it wasn’t her who punched you.’ Cliff puts back a smile, continuing the conversation like he’s not going through an emotional ride right now. 

Rick laughs ‘No, no. Jesus, I-i-it wasn’t.’ 

Rick’s still chuckling under his nose, Cliff’s done his job. He managed to put Rick back in a good mood and while that’s really all that matters, he was also able to satisfy his own curiosity as to what Rick was doing. He considers the conversation done, but to his surprise Rick continues speaking. 

‘It was just some—some random mother-f-fucker. We w-were leaving and he d-decided to start shit.’ Rick explains, with a tone that makes him sound like he’s complaining about a mild inconvenience and not someone starting a fight. 

Cliff raises his eyebrows, surprised at the way Rick suddenly decided to share the story. Apparently the initial shock of it happening has passed and the actor was now fine talking about it.

‘You didn’t get mugged, did you?’ Cliff asks, he feels safe to ask questions now, and the more he knows the less he will worry.

‘Nah, n-nothing like that. I don’t know what the fuck h-he wanted. T-the guy I was with told him to fuck off and t-then—and t-t-then—’ Rick stops abruptly and covers his mouth, Cliff looks over at him and sees how wide his eyes are and how hard his other hand is gripping the fabric of his pants, the actor looks terrified, and Cliff doesn’t know why until he plays back in his mind what was just said. 

He thanks the heavens for the red light because he would have slammed the breaks in the middle of the road otherwise. 

‘What guy?’ Cliff didn’t mean to say that, not really, but it seemed like his mouth reacted before his brain. He should have just pretended he didn’t hear that part. 

Shit, and now he remembers why the street looked familiar. He knows there’s a gay bar nearby. _Shit._

Everything starts to make a little too much sense right now. Why Rick didn’t talk to him about his plans, why he was so upset when he called, why he didn’t want to talk about what happened at first. And maybe Rick doesn’t know why somebody would start shit with him on the streets, but for Cliff it’s obvious. Two men walking out of a gay bar together are an easy damn target for motherfuckers who care a little too much about what other people do.

Cliff is a little shocked. Of course he has considered the possibility of Rick being gay, he’s young, he’s beautiful and he’s successful, and the fact he’s still a bachelor is unusual, but Cliff has always thought he was just too nervous or too insecure to find a woman, but this... this makes sense, Cliff never really believed it because it would just be too good to be true, yet here they are. 

Cliff’s mad at himself again for being happy about this turn of events. He doesn’t like having positive emotions about things that make Rick as miserable as he looks now. 

The actor is still staring at him, with a pleading look in his tear-filled eyes. A look that says something along the lines of _please don’t throw me out of your damn car for this._

Cliff wants nothing more than to let him know he’s more than fine with this, but the truth is he’s lost for words. What the fuck does he even say? He feels like saying anything could set Rick off. He also wants to tell him they’re not that different, but isn’t that just making this whole thing about himself? 

‘Y-y-you d-don’t know him.’ Rick says suddenly, and Cliff remembers that he actually asked him a question. That felt like a while ago, but actually just a couple of seconds passed. ‘H-he asked m-me out on Wednesday, af-after you already went home.’ 

Rick looks and sounds so scared and vulnerable it breaks Cliff’s heart. It seems like he feels he’s about to be yelled at or worse, and Cliff’s still not sure what to do, he would never want to make him feel like that. The actor is not even trying to lie himself out of this, which can mean he has just accepted defeat and that he actually wants to be honest about it. 

Rick jumps when they hear a loud honk from a car behind them, the light has turned green a while ago, Cliff starts driving and takes a breath, comforting Rick is part of his job, and he needs comfort more than ever now. Cliff is not about to fuck this up.

He still has to be looking at the road, so it’s far from perfect, but he puts a hand on Rick’s shoulder and gently rubs it, the actor was tense initially but now Cliff can feel him relax under his touch. 

‘It’s fine.’ Cliff says with a smile, as softly and sincerely as he can. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Rick’s smile lasts for less than a second, but it’s there and it’s enough. Cliff can’t expect him to be okay right away. He’s proud of him, a lot actually, for a person who’s so insecure and secretive admitting something like this must be really hard. Even if he revealed it accidentally, he’s not going back on what he said, and that’s admirable. 

_Your turn_. A little voice in Cliff’s head says, and it’s right. 

‘Do you—’ Cliff’s not sure how to start, he needs a couple of clarifications before he pours his heart out. ‘Do you like women? At all?’ 

Cliff feels a little childish asking a question like that, he hears Rick scoff and sees him shake his head. 

Okay, so Cliff can’t relate to shit. It’s one thing to think about men from time to time and another to be expected to hide such a huge part of who you are and constantly force yourself to be with people you don’t wanna be with to keep up appearances. Cliff thinks back to all the times he told Rick to go for it when he saw a girl was interested in him, and he often listened to Cliff’s advice. The stuntman didn’t like to think that he might have been a part of that societal pressure. 

Not liking women is a little hard to comprehend for Cliff, as would be not liking men. He’s always been like this and it’s safe to say it caused him quite a lot of confusion growing up. He has always been going back and forth, thinking of himself as gay or not, but now he truly doesn’t care what it’s called. He’s just into whoever he’s into at the time. 

He’s not quite like Rick. They are different in a lot of ways, while Rick hasn’t been on a date for at least a year as far as he knows, Cliff meets up with girls and guys every time an opportunity arises. Different ideas of fun, Cliff concludes. 

Cliff realizes he missed a turn a while ago, so he’s going to have to take a detour or find another store that’s open. He curses under his nose, he’s not used to thinking so hard, as funny as it sounds. 

‘Rick?’ Cliff starts, he’s already set his mind to telling Rick everything, it’s only fair, and now the extra time in the car seems like a sign that this is the perfect moment. 

‘Yeah?’ the actor is focused, probably expecting more questions. 

‘I’m—we’re not, uh— Fucking hell.’ Cliff sighs and runs a hand through his hair, did he just stutter? Is that how Rick feels when he can’t get the words out? Cliff is not the person to get flustered talking about sexual preferences, but this isn’t just that, this is sharing secrets and feelings. Cliff’s not good with words, he finds taking action way easier. 

He finally pulls over and drives to the parking lot in front of a small store. He looks over at Rick while he slows down and looks for a spot. Rick’s eyes are glued to him, and he sees a bit of worry in them, he wonders if Rick’s worried for himself or for Cliff. 

‘We’re not that different.’ He finally says as he stops the car, he takes the keys out of the station and the silence of the turned off engine prompts him to finally get this over with. It’s time to bite the bullet. ‘I’m into men too, sometimes.’ 

Rick takes a moment to process what he heard, his expression is one of confusion, and the way he’s staring at Cliff makes him want to abort the mission, he doesn’t remember the time he was this nervous.

‘Some... times?’ Rick clarifies and Cliff gives him a quick nod. 

‘Mhmm, sometimes women, sometimes men. Whoever wants to, really.’ He explains, and hopes Rick hasn’t picked up the shakiness in his voice. 

The actor doesn’t say anything for a moment, and Cliff doesn’t know what to do, so he just smiles like a dunce and pretends to be confident and carefree. He’s not a good actor, and he’s pretty sure Rick sees right through him. 

Cliff is not used to situations that make him nervous in any way, so the first thing he feels is that damn fight or flight instinct. Cliff might be old, but he ain’t really that emotionally mature, so the way he deals with stress is he just simply fucks off. 

‘Wait in the car, I’m gonna get you that ice.’ He says and leaves the car and quickly walks into the store. He doesn’t look back at Rick but he can imagine how annoyed he must be. It’s funny, wasn’t Cliff supposed to be the brave one? 

Normally Cliff wouldn’t care. He’s been in situations when he told random people about his sexuality, mostly just to get a reaction or shut someone up when they were saying ignorant shit. He always found that funny and he was never as stressed about that as he is now. He doesn’t care what people think, unless those people are Rick Dalton. 

He cares a lot about what Rick thinks of him, more than he ever did with any other person. The thing is, he has no idea what Rick’s views actually are. As far as he knows he can be one of those people that are sure being around queers will turn you into one, and now that he knows he’s been friends with one for years he’ll blame his own _deviancies_ on that. Maybe Rick won’t like being around someone that isn’t really secretive about this stuff and thinks his career isn’t worth the risk. Or maybe he’s so deep into self hate that he’ll just tell Cliff to fuck off. The stuntman has no idea what he would do if that happened, Rick’s his whole life now, as sappy as it sounds. 

He goes over to the freezers and grabs an ice pack, along with a pack of beer. Maybe if he’s lucky he’ll share if with Rick at his place, if not he’s just gonna have it all to himself. God knows he needs it. 

The purchase is quick, and the whole trip hasn’t taken up more than five minutes. When Cliff is out of the store he can see Rick standing outside, leaning against the car and quietly smoking. 

‘Here.’ Cliff says and throws the ice pack at him while he gets to the car and opens the back door to put the beer in. Rick barely catches it and almost drops his cigarette. Cliff can’t help but smile at how cute that was. 

‘T-thanks.’ Rick responds. Cliff goes over and leans back right next to his friend, lighting his own cigarette. 

He catches himself staring at Rick. He’s been doing that a lot lately, mostly subconsciously. He can’t help it really, he likes looking at him and sometimes watching his movies over and over isn’t enough. 

Cliff sees Rick’s hand and only now notices the red and purple on his knuckles. He smiles wider. 

‘Shit, you did punch back.’ He says, sounding impressed.

Rick’s slightly startled, he takes a moment and looks over at his hand when he finally realizes what Cliff meant. 

‘And you used the hand with a ring, good choice. Must have hurt.’ Cliff continues and makes Rick chuckle. 

‘You didn’t believe me?’ 

Cliff wants to object, but he laughs instead, Rick does see right through him. 

‘Asshole.’ The actor says, he looks like he’s about to laugh himself. Happiness really suits him, Cliff thinks. 

They spent a moment silently smoking. The night is nice and warm and Cliff’s pretty sure Rick would love to be floating by the pool with a margarita right now instead of icing a bruise on a dingy parking lot, but the actor doesn’t look like he hates where he is. He looks calm, they both are. Cliff can feel like a weight has been lifted off his chest knowing everything is the same even after such huge revelations, and he can’t imagine how relieved Rick must be feeling. 

‘Cliff?’ he breaks the silence, Cliff hums prompting his friend to go on. ‘D-did you mean what you said? Or—or did you say that just to make me feel better? About you being l-like—like this too?’

Cliff looks over at him,, he is a bit offended Rick would accuse him of lying like that, but he knows this is just Rick’s insecurity talking and he doesn’t actually think of him as such a dick. He takes a smoke-free breath and prepares mentally for questions he doesn’t know he will be able to answer. 

‘I wouldn’t do that Rick. I meant it.’ He says calmly, looking somewhere into the distance. ‘We’re in this together.’ 

Rick nods, looking calmer. Apparently he just needed that reassurance. ‘Shit.’ He says as he chuckles. ‘I never would have thought. You don’t—you don’t look like it.’ 

Cliff raises his eyebrows, surprised Rick would say such a thing, but in his mind it’s probably a compliment, as tragic as it sounds. 

‘Do queers have a look?’ Cliff asks, half serious half joking. 

Rick shrugs and the smile comes off his face. ‘Apparently they look like me.’ He said as he flicked his cigarette. ‘H-how else would Dave know he could ask me out.’ 

Cliff needed a moment to figure out who Dave was, it was easy to conclude it was the guy Rick was just on a date with. Cliff wondered where he was now. Why the fuck would he leave Rick like that? 

‘People say I dress gay too. N-never knew what the fuck that meant. I’m n-not the only fucking guy in Hollywood wearing turtlenecks.’ 

Cliff chuckles at that, but for Rick it didn’t seem too funny. He’s pissed, Cliff can tell. 

‘Maybe Dave didn’t know. He could have just taken a shot in the dark.’ Cliff tries to reason. ‘If you were straight you probably wouldn’t think much about it.’ 

Rick nods, not looking like he was sold on the idea. 

‘As for your clothes, if you dress gay then that’s a compliment. Straight guys can’t dress for shit.’ 

Rick finally laughs, and that makes Cliff feel proud. He wonders if Rick ever had that type of talk with someone, or if he ever told anybody. Cliff would feel a little special if he was the first person to know Rick Dalton was gay, but at the same time, Rick was in his forties, if he never had anybody to confide in for this many years Cliff could only imagine how shitty he must have felt. 

‘How was he?’ Cliff asks after a moment. ‘Dave I mean.’ 

Rick doesn’t look at him, still hesitant to share such details. ‘He was alright.’ He says nonchalantly and shrugs. ‘C-came—came on too strong though. I’m not t-the type of guy to do, uh, ‘ya know... one night st-stands. Guy gotta buy me flowers before he can get me in bed.’ 

_Duly noted._ Cliff thinks. 

‘Especially w-when I—’ Rick tries to continue, but Cliff can tell it’s hard for him to say it. ‘When I never—d-done—’ 

Rick cuts off and looks away. His shaking voice and deep breaths gives Cliff a heads up that he is about to cry. Ofcourse the stuntman knew what he was going to say. That he’s never slept with another man. Cliff can understand, to a certain extent, why he wouldn’t. Cliff flirts with everything with two legs and a pretty face, which often gets him some action later, but he’s also a trained fighter, and if some asshole doesn’t like it he doesn’t have much to worry for. 

Cliff knows Rick well enough to know he’s just scared. Scared for his career and his safety. Not to mention he’s not near as confident and even with women they were always first to initiate anything. Well, now it’s obvious why. 

‘Rick...’ Cliff says softly when he hears his friend sniff. ‘It’s alright. It’s not that big of a deal. Everybody needs to take their time.’ He reassures, but Rick only puts down the ice pack and looks at him with an angry glare.

‘Come on.’ He scoffs. ‘You know it’s bullshit. I’m b-basically a fucking for-forty year old virgin. It’s pathetic.’ He sniffs again and wipes his face. ‘Can’t even be a proper queer.’ 

‘Rick don’t...’ Cliff says, but doesn’t finish. He doesn’t really know how to. He hears Rick is trying to calm down, and it works for the most part. Cliff thinks all he has to do is ease the tension. ‘You ain’t a virgin. You’ve been with women, right?’ 

Rick nods and takes a drag with a shaky hand. ‘Y-yeah. I’ve—been with women.’ Another sniff. ‘Didn’t like it.’ 

Cliff thinks for a moment, trying to comprehend how Rick was doing it with women if he didn’t enjoy it. There was no scandal, and as far as he knows no women ever thought of Rick as gay after he slept with them, so he must have been good enough for none to notice. 

‘Jesus, j-just ask.’ Rick hisses lightly, like he heard Cliff’s thoughts. He didn’t wait for Cliff’s question though. ‘I’m an actor. I j-just pretend for a couple of hours and n-nobody ever figures I’m not into it. At least—at l-least the girls get something out of it.’

‘What _are_ you into?’ Cliff says without much seriousness, hoping the two would go to a lighter and more fun topic. 

Rick furrows his brows and looks at Cliff curiously. ‘What are _you_ into?’ he throws back, and Cliff can’t help but smile. 

‘You want the details or just general shit?’ Cliff asks, lightly with a sly smile. 

‘Fucking—forget ‘bout it. Don’t—don’t want no details.’ Rick laughs, with a slight blush. 

‘I don’t mind sharing.’ Cliff says as he shrugs and takes a drag. 

He can tell Rick is curious, but too flustered to directly ask. Rick’s always been like that, he often gives Cliff shit for being too crude and shameless, especially in public situations, but the stuntman is always amused when Rick gets flustered, so he never stops. 

‘I’m into tits.’ He says nonchalantly and hears Rick scoff, but it seems like he found that funny.

‘T-thought we were talking ‘bout men.’ 

‘I didn’t say only on women.’ 

‘Jesus, Cliff.’ Rick laughs and turns his face away, hiding his blush. 

‘Your turn.’ Cliff prompts. He’s proud that he managed to turn this into something funny, he loves when Rick’s laughing, not only is it cute as fuck, it also signals that he’s comfortable. So making him laugh is always Cliff’s go-to method of getting him into a better mood. 

‘I’m not telling you shit.’ Rick teases, and Cliff nods. 

‘I’m gonna find out eventually.’ He says, and makes Rick laugh again. 

Cliff’s still curious, but he’s not gonna push it any further. Maybe it’s a start and now Rick’s gonna be feeling a little better about this whole thing. Cliff would very much like it if they started to be casual about it, talk about men, dating and all types of shit like it were normal. If nothing else it’s surely going to bring them closer together, and Cliff’s all about that. 

‘You, uh...’ Rick starts. ‘I saw you bought some beer.’ He awkwardly points to Cliff’s trunk. 

‘Yeah, I have.’ Cliff nodds and smiles, anticipating Rick to continue. 

‘Wanna sp-spend the night at my place?’ the actor shyly asks. ‘It’s l-late and you’ve got a long w-way from my house to Van N-Nuys... Thought I’d offer, f-for getting your ass here in the middle of the night.’ 

‘I thought you’d never ask.’ Cliff says with a grin and makes Rick smile. The actor’s eyes spark with happiness and Cliff feels that this whole thing turned out pretty well, despite how shitty it started. 

‘Thanks.’ Rick mutters after a beat. Cliff barely hears it, but sends the actor a smile anyway. 

‘Don’t mention it.’ Cliff says and drops his cigarette to the floor. He stomps on it and goes around the car to get in. ‘Come on, let’s get home before the beer gets too warm.’

Rick smiles again and follows Cliff into the car. As they drive off they’re silent, but way more comfortable than they were before. _They said what needed to be said_ – Cliff thinks – _at least for now._

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! Don't hesitate to give some feedback <3  
> follow me on twitter or insta if you want @yokiter I do art and stuff


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